James Tien Pei-chun will remain as chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board for another three years after being reappointed by the government for a second term.
Tien, who had expressed to the government his desire to remain as head of the board, will now serve until March 31, 2013.
'Under the leadership of Mr Tien, the HKTB has helped to sustain tourism development as a key economic pillar for Hong Kong and worked with the trade to overcome the challenges brought by the financial tsunami and the outbreak of human swine influenza,' Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan said.
During his tenure, Tien saw the number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong increase 16 per cent to about 18 million last year from 15.48 million in 2007. The number of arrivals to the city also improved over the same period, by 5 per cent to 29.59 million from 28.17 million.
The number of visitors grew despite one of the toughest times for the tourism trade last year, as the global financial meltdown and human swine flu fears grounded airlines, emptied hotels and forced shops and restaurants to slash prices.
The tourism board expects the number of visitors to rise this year by 5 per cent or 1.5 million to 31 million. The number of mainland travellers is forecast to increase 7.5 per cent to 19.3 million. The board is trying to take advantage of the World Expo in Shanghai and the Asian Games in Guangdong to attract visitors to Hong Kong this year. It is spending HK$62 million to promote the city to mainlanders, up from HK$55 million last year.